Longboarding Fun

Spent another hour yesterday fairing the cored section of the cabintop while I wait for the epoxy to fully cure on the forward section with all the bore holes.  The 17" longboard I made a while back is probably a bit on the short side for this section because it's a large area, but at the same time, the curve of the cabin dictates that I really only move in one direction (or slightly diagonal).  I probably should have a flexible board for these sections, but I think it will be ok as long as I'm careful.

I really like not having the power tools on and the constant 'shhsha shhsha shhsha shhsha' of the longboard is soothing.  The only downside is that I get really sweaty because it's reasonably hard work and there is no dust collection other than periodically firing up the shop vac.  The result is that a lot of the dust ends up sticking to me and I end up looking like a big yeti.

Once I knocked down all the high spots on the section I mixed up 12 oz of thickened epoxy and spread a thin coat on some of the low spots.  I think it's looking pretty good now, I don't know if I can get it much more fair at this point because of the color inconsistencies in the core make for lots of illusions. It's not perfect, but getting close. The Primekote should be here on Monday, so I am going to prime that section before I try anymore fill/fair cycles.  I'm hoping that getting a solid color (white) down will make it easier to spot high/low spots.

I may start the second round of longboarding the side decks in the next few days, but given that the temps are expected to be close to 100 today and tomorrow, I think I will stay out of the shed or plan on some early morning work.

Slower Than Snot

I've spent way too much time on the original cabintop (the only section that wasn't completely recored) this week.  I thought it would be the easiest part of the whole boat, but the old paint ended up being harder than granite and I stubbornly thought I could sand through it with 40 and 60 grit paper.  I even tried a flapper wheel with 36 grit paper to no avail.

Since I'm planning on using a 2 part LPU paint, it can't be applied over a 1 part paint and since I'm not sure what the old paint is, I figured the safest bet would be to get rid of all of it, but short of busting out the angle grinder (I just don't want to go there), it just wasn't coming off.

After speaking with an Interlux rep. for the second time this week, he told me that I can do an MEK test to determine the suitability of the underlying substrate.  Basically you soak a rag with 2333N (Interlux brushing reducer), place it on the substrate (deck), and tape a bag over it so the solvent can't evaporate.  Leave it for 24 hours and see if the underlying paint blisters or cracks.  If it does then it has to be removed, if not then it's fine to use as a substrate for a 2 part primer.  So I ordered a gallon of Interlux Primekote primer and a quart of 2333N Brushing Reducer to perform the test.  Hopefully the test will come out positive (I don't have to grind it off) and then I can move forward with at least thinking about priming.

On the fairing front, I continued longboarding the recored section of the cabintop (yep gonna need more work to make it fair) and did a final fill on the holes that I did my test bores on at the beginning of this project.  It feels like I'm barely moving along and just making more dust, but I guess it's going in the right direction.

Round One Complete

With the exception of the cabin top I just finished round one of longboarding the decks.  I'm pretty pleased with the result but will need to do a bunch of spot filling in areas that are a bit low.  On the next round I have to address the chainplates since they are a bit raw right now.  I really like the idea of doing little islands that will raise the chainplate/deck interface to prevent water intrusion, but I'm not sure the extra work is worth the trouble.

One area that I was pleasantly surprised was the aft deck.  That was where I started with the fairing compound and there are a lot of tight areas to 'spackle' around. But with a little elbow grease and a bunch of corner sanding it turned out ok.  Still need to spot fill but I think it's all good.

In the meantime I'll have to re-install the chainplates so they are ready for either just cleaning up the interface or raising it up to make little islands.  I hope to carve out some time this weekend to spot fill the low areas and keep moving forward.

Let the Torture Boarding Begin

I made myself fairly scarce at work this week and spent 2 afternoons finishing up adding the fairing compound to all the decks.  Now the first coat is on the entire boat.  I used just a tad less than a gallon of epoxy mixed to a 2:1 ratio of Q-cells to Aerosil.  Some spots are better than others but overall I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I certainly will need more in some spots (particularly the cabin top which seems low), but it will be a lot less than the first pass.  No surprise but the hard parts were around the chainplates and rear deck scuppers.  For a final pass I will re-install the chainplates with a layer of tape around them and fair with them in place. But that's a ways off.

I have to say that I'm not sure what people are complaining about.  Long (torture) boarding isn't that bad.  I find it somewhat soothing.  Sure it's slow going, but it sure as hell beats grinding bevels in the decks with the angle grinder.  I will not miss that one bit.  I may build another longboard that has a little more flex to it to conform to the curved areas on the deck, but the two that I made so far seem to be working well (17" & 11" for tighter areas).   I spent about 2 hours this morning long boarding the foredeck and as expected, there were a few low spots but nothing major and a small amount of additional compound should make it right.  Once I make it around the whole boat with the longboard (maybe another week or so), I'll pull all the ports and start sanding and prepping the cabin trunk sides.  Then a final (hopefully) coat of fairing compound to fill out the low spots and another round of longboarding.  At that point things ought to be ready for primer, but depending on weather (temp and humidity), that may have to wait until spring.

Woohoo, decks!  

Hard to see, but the foredeck up to the forward part of the cabin trunk has been longboarded.  The darker areas are low spots that will need to be filled again.

Fairly Difficult

So it looks like I need some practice with this whole fairing thing.  I took advantage of the still green epoxy on the aft deck and decided to get a head start on laying down the fairing compound.  I wish I could just spread it all nice and perfect, but it just doesn't seem that easy.  I kept dragging an edge or putting too much pressure on the spreader and as a result I couldn't get it perfect.  The main tool I was using was a 12" steel edge drywall knife for the open areas and 4" and 1" plastic spreaders for the tight spots.  The aft deck was actually not a great place to start because there are lots of complicated edges and corners, but all in all it came out ok for a first pass.

Ok for first pass

To build the long boards I used a few pieces of plastic wood cut into 2-3/4 inch strips; one 17 inches and one 11 inches.  I countersunk screws through the bottom and mounted 2 cheap kitchen drawer handles to the top for a good handhold.  I ordered a few 25 yard rolls of pressure sensitive adhesive (psa) long board sandpaper and it showed up on Saturday.

The next day I came back and attempted to try out my newly built long boards.  Unfortunately, the cold weather the night before had slowed up the cure and I found myself gumming up the board quickly.  I was a bit worried because I thought that I may have improperly mixed the last batch and wondered weather or not I would need to grind it all off.   Fortunately, when I stopped in this morning I could tell that things had hardened up much better overnight.   I decided I would let everything harden up for a few days because the cold is expected to continue throughout the weekend.  Not much time left; ideally I'd like to be able to get a coat of primer down before winter, but I don't know if I'll make it before it gets too cold.

Anyway, I spent a few hours today sanding and prepping the cabin top with the 5" deWalt (the big Rigid is STILL in the shop... grrrrr) and got a first coat of fairing compound down.  It was a lot easier on the cabin top because there aren't many quirky corners and edges.  For the fairing compound I mixed up 48 oz (in 3 batches) and added roughly a 2:1 mix of glass Q-cells to Aerosil.  I probably won't even try any long boarding for a few days because my schedule is pretty busy this week, but it's just as well because the cold will slow the cure down anyway.